Configuring First Hop Redundancy Protocols in IPv6

First Published: July 30, 2010

Last Updated: April 22, 2011

IPv6 routing protocols ensure router-to-router resilience and failover. However, in situations in which the path between a host and the first-hop router fails, or the first-hop router itself fails, first hop redundancy protocols (FHRPs) ensure host-to-router resilience and failover.

Finding Feature Information

Your software release may not support all the features documented in this module. For the latest feature information and caveats, see the release notes for your platform and software release. To find information about the features documented in this module, and to see a list of the releases in which each feature is supported, see the "Feature Information for First Hop Redundancy Protocols in IPv6" section.

Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and Cisco software image support. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to http://www.cisco.com/go/cfn.An account on Cisco.com is not required.

Information About First Hop Redundancy Protocols in IPv6

HSRP for IPv6

HSRP for IPv6 Overview

The HSRP is an FHRP designed to allow for transparent failover of the first-hop IP router. HSRP provides high network availability by providing first-hop routing redundancy for IP hosts on GigabitEthernet configured with a default gateway IP address. HSRP is used in a group of routers for selecting an active router and a standby router. In a group of router interfaces, the active router is the router of choice for routing packets; the standby router is the router that takes over when the active router fails or when preset conditions are met.

IPv6 hosts learn of available IPv6 routers through IPv6 neighbor discovery RA messages. These are multicast periodically, or may be solicited by hosts. HSRP is designed to provide only a virtual first hop for IPv6 hosts.

An HSRP IPv6 group has a virtual MAC address that is derived from the HSRP group number, and a virtual IPv6 link-local address that is, by default, derived from the HSRP virtual MAC address. Periodic RAs are sent for the HSRP virtual IPv6 link-local address when the HSRP group is active. These RAs stop after a final RA is sent when the group leaves the active state.

Periodic RAs for the interface link-local address stop after a final RA is sent while at least one virtual IPv6 link-local address is configured on the interface. No restrictions occur for the interface IPv6 link-local address other than that mentioned for the RAs. Other protocols continue to receive and send packets to this address.

HSRP uses a priority mechanism to determine which HSRP configured router is to be the default active router. To configure a router as the active router, you assign it a priority that is higher than the priority of all the other HSRP-configured routers. The default priority is 100, so if you configure just one router to have a higher priority, that router will be the default active router.

HSRP IPv6 Virtual MAC Address Range

HSRP IPv6 uses a different virtual MAC address block than does HSRP for IP:

0005.73A0.0000 through 0005.73A0.0FFF (4096 addresses)

HSRP IPv6 UDP Port Number

Port number 2029 has been assigned to HSRP IPv6.

NSF and SSO-HSRP for IPv6 on VRF Interfaces

Cisco Nonstop Forwarding (NSF) and stateful switchover (SSO) are supported on HSRP for IPv6 on VRF interfaces, which makes HSRP for IPv6 VRF-aware.

For further information about SSO and NSF, see "Stateful Switchover" and "Cisco Nonstop Forwarding" in the Cisco IOS XE High Availability Configuration Guide.

Specifies an interface type and number, and places the router in interface configuration mode.

Step 4

standby version{1 |2}

Example:

Router(config-if)# standby version 2

Changes the version of the HSRP.

•Version 1 is the default.

Enabling and Verifying an HSRP Group for IPv6 Operation

In this task, when you enter the standby ipv6 command, a link-local address is generated from the link-local prefix, and a modified EUI-64 format interface identifier is generated in which the EUI-64 interface identifier is created from the relevant HSRP virtual MAC address.

A link-local address is an IPv6 unicast address that can be automatically configured on any interface using the link-local prefix FE80::/10 (1111 1110 10) and the interface identifier in the modified EUI-64 format. Link-local addresses are used in the stateless autoconfiguration process. Nodes on a local link can use link-local addresses to communicate; the nodes do not need site-local or globally unique addresses to communicate.

In IPv6, a router on the link advertises in RA messages any site-local and global prefixes, and its willingness to function as a default router for the link. RA messages are sent periodically and in response to router solicitation messages, which are sent by hosts at system startup.

A node on the link can automatically configure site-local and global IPv6 addresses by appending its interface identifier (64 bits) to the prefixes (64 bits) included in the RA messages. The resulting 128-bit IPv6 addresses configured by the node are then subjected to duplicate address detection to ensure their uniqueness on the link. If the prefixes advertised in the RA messages are globally unique, then the IPv6 addresses configured by the node are also guaranteed to be globally unique. Router solicitation messages, which have a value of 133 in the Type field of the ICMP packet header, are sent by hosts at system startup so that the host can immediately autoconfigure without needing to wait for the next scheduled RA message.

Configuration Examples for First Hop Redundancy Protocols in IPv6

Example: Enabling and Verifying an HSRP Group for IPv6 Operation

The following example shows configuration verification for an HSRP group for IPv6 that consists of Router1 and Router2. The show standby command is issued for each router to verify the router's configuration.

MIBs

RFCs

RFC

Title

RFC 2281

Cisco Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP)

Technical Assistance

Description

Link

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http://www.cisco.com/cisco/web/support/index.html

Feature Information for First Hop Redundancy Protocols in IPv6

Table 1 lists the features in this module and provides links to specific configuration information.

Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and software image support. Cisco Feature Navigator enables you to determine which software images support a specific software release, feature set, or platform. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to http://www.cisco.com/go/cfn. An account on Cisco.com is not required.

Note Table 1 lists only the software release that introduced support for a given feature in a given software release train. Unless noted otherwise, subsequent releases of that software release train also support that feature.

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Any Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and phone numbers used in this document are not intended to be actual addresses. Any examples, command display output, and figures included in the document are shown for illustrative purposes only. Any use of actual IP addresses in illustrative content is unintentional and coincidental.